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GCSE English Language · key term
A question used to provoke thought or emphasise a point rather than obtain a spoken answer.
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Paper 2
A question used to make an audience consider a point, rather than to request an answer.
Revise: Arguing a viewpointThe rhetorical question invites readers to reconsider the meaning of “opportunity”.
A question asked for effect rather than to obtain an answer from the audience.
Follow a rhetorical question with reasoning, evidence or a concrete example that develops its implied answer.
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Paper 1, Paper 2
A question used for an effect rather than to obtain an answer from someone.
Revise: Analysing languagePercy’s rhetorical question delays the description briefly, placing us alongside him as he looks. In the next sentence, the repetition of ‘his’ at the beginning of successive phrases is anaphora. It directs attention to his cheeks, then his hair, then his skin.
A question used to make an audience think or emphasise a point rather than to obtain an answer.
A question asked to prompt thought or emphasise a point rather than obtain an answer.
Paper 1, Paper 2
A question used for its persuasive effect rather than to obtain an answer.
Revise: Analysing languageThe rhetorical question invites readers to supply the answer ‘no’. Rather than only asserting that early physical education would prevent later decline, Blaikie encourages readers to reach that conclusion themselves. This makes them participants in his reasoning.
A question used to make a point or prompt thought rather than to obtain an answer.
Paper 1
A question asked to encourage thought or emphasise a point rather than receive a spoken answer.
Revise: Writing a speech or talkA rhetorical question can make listeners consider something personally: 'How many people in this hall do you recognise but have never spoken to?' It connects the issue to the people actually being addressed. A string of unrelated questions would be less purposeful.
Component 2
Revise: Writing a speech or talkA rhetorical question invites listeners to consider your point: ‘Why throw away something we could use again?’ It works because the question leads directly to a practical suggestion.
A question asked to make the reader consider a point rather than to obtain an answer.
